“They are all caloried. There is a lot of work and training and money put into this. We were lucky to have those resources at hand.

“We had a fantastic chef with us – Rory Fay – who is a consultant chef and is very well trained in nutrition. We got his help, and we worked with our own head chef and went from there,” he added.

Kayleigh Yeoman (19), a participant in this year’s RTÉ Operation Transformation weight-loss show, was on hand to support the initiative. “Every food base/establishment needs to do something like this because the customer deserves to know what they are eating.

“I used to eat chicken Caesar salad thinking it was fantastic, and there’s more calories in that than there is in half the pasta dishes around, so that’s shocking,” she said.

Minister of State and local TD Jan O’Sullivan, who launched yesterday’s caloried menu, said the initiative was “a good idea”.

She “wouldn’t rule out” the possibility of the Government introducing future legislation forcing the hotel and catering industry to display menus with calories.